Our Bordeaux group once again veered into Burgundy, meeting at Nice Matin for a Gevrey night. A couple of frequent guests joined some regulars, fun time. Service was great, food quite good, company funny and fun.
Paul and I had each said we?d bring a starter white, with no coordination we ended up with 2 Francois Carillon bottlings
2014 F. Carillon "Les Macherelles" Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Love these 2014s, good acids. Spiced apple pie, citrus, just a touch of vanilla. B+/A-2010 F. Carillon "Perrieres" Puligny-Montrachet 1er Just a little sulfur/reductive note at first, but opens nicely. Minerally but rich, pear and hazelnut with a chalky note on finish. Holds up well (I revisit at end of night) A-
The restaurant brought out some extra apps, chickpea fries with aioli and rich/intense truffled tortellini in a cream sauce. Nice!
I did suffer some appetizer envy, others had escargot, octopus, and a nice risotto with gorgonzola, I ordered pissaladiere and got a rather thick/doughy tart, not what I expected.
But loved the duck breast, with honeynut mashed and grilled escarole
So general theme was Gevrey 1er or GC, we had circulated our possibilities and narrowed down to 2 subthemes, Jadot CSJ and Clos de Beze.
1996 Jadot Clos St. Jacques Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Full-bodied, high acid, still some tannin. Darker fruits, coffee, get a bit leathery.No hurry B+1999 Jadot Clos St. Jacques Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Showing well with a little air red and black cherries, plenty of earth, some mushroom notes. Sturdy and well-balanced. One person said it fell apart but retasted at end and still quite liked. A-
2002 Jadot Clos St. Jacques Gevrey-Chambertin 1er I?ve always liked 2002 Burgundies, quite the friendly vintage, but this takes that friendliness and wraps it in a coat of elegance and complexity. Spice and incense, black cherry fruit, tangy, long finish. A-/A2005 Jadot Clos St. Jacques Gevrey-Chambertin 1er This is a bit tight (as expected), but really a gorgeous wine underneath. Black cherry, smoke, coffee. Tannic but with good balance. Revisit in 10. B+ for now
2013 Jadot Clos St. Jacques Gevrey-Chambertin 1er This was double-decanted in AM but still was in a bit of a shell. Nice structure, black plum and earth underneath, will be very good. B+/B now2001 Jean Raphet "Cuvee Unique" Chambertin-Clos de Beze OK so my experience with the NBI Cuvee Unique wines is that they were uniquely over-oaked, but this didn?t reek of oak at all. Sweet red fruit, a little leather and spice, fun wine. B+/A-
2006 Alain Burguet Chambertin-Clos de Beze I think I was only one who found this Best of Beze this night. Dirt, cedar, and citrus zest over a solid red fruit base, nice earthy/minerally finish. A-/B+2006 Groffier Chambertin-Clos de Beze This was not glossy or oaky as I feared, but to me it lacked the vibrancy and depth of some of the other reds. I certainly enjoyed, but kept going back to others, I think everyone else liked more than me, some thought a contender for WOTN, B/B+
Really good night of wine, food, and company. And great hospitality by the Nice Matin crew.
Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C drinkable. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice.Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.